


Rub Your Eyes

by pikaflute



Series: Nickles Week [5]
Category: Metalocalypse (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Unrequited Love, post doomstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29573043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikaflute/pseuds/pikaflute
Summary: Thanks for the memories, thanks for the timesI took what you gave to me and then made it mineA drift on the river but riding the tideStill afloatPickles and Nathan talk on the roof.Day 6 :) Prophecy or Preklok. It's time for prophecy angst BABYEE
Relationships: Nathan Explosion/Pickles the Drummer
Series: Nickles Week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2162430
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Rub Your Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> deep introspection time! get these man some therapy because damn are they bad at issues! title is from red vox's rub your eyes :) you know its a deep fic if there's lyrics in the description

To say things were weird after the whole Doomstar incident may have been an understatement. Pickles already felt weird after the whole band reuniting but piling on the knowledge that they have to “save” the world from some random guy they didn’t even know existed until the guy who runs the record label exploded right in front of him. Then there was that whole church watching them and saving their ass, Toki and Abigail getting kidnapped by Magnus of all people, and that guy they exploded in front of their eyes.

Shit was beyond weird at this point.

Right now, however, there was a restlessness over Mordhaus. Toki was still in the hospital and Skwisgaar was always with him. Murderface was keeping to himself and acting more and more violent towards the band as a whole. Charles was always in that weird church, reading things, and trying to decipher what they had to do next. Pickles was starting to feel surges of power. The calls from an otherworldly entity, beckoning him to cause destruction and bring forth chaos upon the world. He hasn’t told anyone yet out of fear of what problems it would pile onto Dethklok already.

And then there’s Nathan.

Nathan had been quiet ever since they’ve returned home. He keeps to himself, going to Charles’ now empty office to gaze over the grounds of Mordhaus during the day, swimming in the massive pool (that Pickles realized that just now owned) in the lower levels of Mordhaus in the afternoon, and at night, nights where the sky is clear, he goes on the roof, gazing up at the Doomstar.

Pickles knows something is bothering Nathan. Probably the same things that are bothering himself. He needs to talk to him. _They_ need to talk.

So, Pickles waits until night, and heads up to the roof. He lights a cigarette before climbing the steps to calm his nerves and begins to ascend. When he makes it up there, he sees Nathan, hands folded across his chest looking up at the sky.

“Hey.”

Nathan looks over at Pickles, his face softens.

“Hey.”

Pickles walks over to Nathan and points next to him.

“Can I? Sit here?”

Nathan nods and Pickles sits down. Pickles wants to say something, but he doesn’t know where to begin. Might as well start with:

“So, uh. Why are you up here?”

Nathan shrugs.

“Thinking. About stuff.”

Pickles takes another puff of his cigarette.

“Seems you’re doing a lot of that lately. Wanna tell me what’s rattling around up there?”

“A lot of things,” Nathan smiles and looks at Pickles, “But I think you know that, already right? Isn’t that why you came up here?”

“Ouch, you got me.”

Nathan laughs and then looks back up at the sky.

“I’ve been thinking about us. Dethklok. The prophecy. Everything really.”

“Like what we have to do?”

Nathan shakes his head.

“No. More why. Why us? Why are we the ones to fulfill this stupid prophecy? What makes us so special that we got these powers?”

Nathan pauses to sigh. Pickles takes a hit of his cigarette. He does have a point. Why them? Why were they chosen to lead the world into a “rebirth” through their highly destructive powers? It didn’t make any sense what a couple of gods wanted to do with a fucked up traumatized group of people who only just now came together as a family. Pickles takes another hit. Thinking about his own place in this prophecy made his chest ache.

“But,” Pickles jumps when Nathan suddenly begins to speak again, “I just have a feeling that we’re the only ones who _can_ do this. Something about the thing we did to that guy. The power I felt. It felt natural. It felt like it was _meant_ to be this way.”

“Like some weird fate shit?”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

Nathan seems content with that answer and goes back to looking up at the stars. Pickles does the same. The pollution seems to have subsided a bit as the once gloomy fog over their home is gone, and for the first time in a long while, the stars are visible over Mordhaus. The night sky is littered with tiny specks of light, so far away, yet still so bright and beautiful. Then there’s the Doomstar, still burning and blazing. Its blue hue lights the normally dark sky into a lighter blue that makes the stars in the sky all the much brighter and clearer to see.

It’s beautiful. The oppressive feeling Pickles feels when he looks up at the sky has subsided for once and looking up into the vast unknown makes him feel sure of his place on this little pale blue dot. He’s sure Nathan is feeling the same thing. With one final drag, he puts out his cigarette against the cold steel roof of Mordhaus, then looks down at Nathan.

“You know I’ve been thinking about it too. This whole prophecy bullshit.”

“You have?”

Pickles nods, “It’s the reason we. You know.”

Nathan looks guilty. They haven’t really talked about it. It was kind of something they both brushed under the rug. They really haven’t had time to talk about with the whole end of the world hanging over their shoulders, and they really had time to process _what_ they meant to each other. Pickles has some idea what Nathan means to him. It’s taken a while to process those emotions, but he knows that there’s _something_ there. He doesn’t know if it’s love or what, but it’s _something_. It’s part of the reason he met Nathan up on the roof.

He’s afraid to ask if Nathan feels the same. The last thing he would want to be is rejected by the man he has feelings for.

“It hurt a lot to be separated, be alone from you, and. I kept asking myself if you. You-”

Pickles didn’t want to cry but thinking about the ache of being alone and away from his best friend hurt a lot. Rejection was something he should be used to with his family and being a former rock star who fell from fame but being away from Nathan hurt way more than those two combined.

“Pickles?”

He can guess why that’s the case, and he doesn’t want to admit it.

“I’m fine,” Pickles rubs his eyes with his left arm, “It’s just hard to think about.”

“Right. Are you okay to talk about?”

“Yeah. I’m good.”

Nathan didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t stop Pickles from talking.

“I just felt you hated me. I know you didn’t, we’re just bad at the whole emotional shit, but. It was still hard to get through you know? But man, I missed you. I missed us. It felt good to use that power together. It all just fit into place.”

“Like fate?”

“Yeah, maybe like fate.”

Pickles doesn’t really believe in higher powers, but he’s always felt a tug to the other members of Dethklok especially the lead singer. Maybe this tug was their own godly powers attracting to one another, or something like that. They don’t really understand everything about the prophecy yet but maybe that tug was a part of it.

“Even it isn’t fate, you think, fuckin, Ghost, could’ve pulled off what we do? I don’t think so. We’re the only fucked up metal band who’s gonna being the world down! Mark my words!”

Nathan smiles and then begins to laugh. Pickles fells warm hearing it. He hasn’t heard Nathan laugh, in god knows how long.

“You always know what to say. Like you’re reading my mind.”

“Maybe I am. Think of a number.”

“Hm. Okay.”

Pickles puts his hands to his forehead, pretending to focus really hard.

“Six! It’s six right!”

“Woah yeah!”

“Really?”

Nathan snorts, “No it was eleven. But, good try though.”

The two break out into giggles. Pickles feels like a huge weight has been eased off his chest. Hearing Nathan happy and able to laugh again makes Pickles feel that everything is okay. The two come down from their laughing fit and Pickles lays down on the roof proper. He lets out a sigh.

“Thanks for talking to me by the way, good to just vent. This stuff is just heavy.”

“Don’t mention it Pickles.” Nathans grabs his hand, and squeezes tightly, “Everything will turn out okay.”

Pickles squeezes back, “I hope so.”

There’s a moment of silence. There’s so much more they both want to say, Pickles can feel it. Does Nathan love Pickles the same way Pickles loves Nathan? Pickles is stupid but he isn’t that stupid. He can sense something between them. Something unspoken. Something unbreakable. But neither have the words to say it out loud.

“Hey Nathan?”

“Hm?”

If he doesn’t have the words to admit his love yet, maybe he can try something else.

“Let’s just forget about the world for a little bit. Just us okay?”

“Okay,” Nathan seems relieved at Pickles’ suggestion, then after a second he squeezes Pickles hand adding, ” I missed you too Pickles.”

Pickles smiles and closes his eyes. Maybe everything will turn out okay like Nathan said. Maybe this was all fate.

He squeezes back against Nathan’s hand and whispers, “I know.”

He hopes fate is kind to them in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> :)c kudos and comments are welcomed and appreciated, also you guys are doing nickles week right, let me see all of dat sick content please


End file.
